Unpacking Self and Silence: Looking Inward, Looking Outward, Looking Through

Abstract

Looking inward as a mother, I see that autobiographical narrative inquiry has further deepened my understanding that my children’s dual identity (Muslim Canadians) is not breaking them apart, rather putting them together. Looking outward as a researcher, poetic representation has given me a voice where, instead of fearing silence, I am able to “inhabit a more ambiguous and flexible sense of self” (Boler, 1999, p. 176). I am able to act as an interpreter between the chaos of my experiences and an assembly of unbroken monologues and sporadic dialogues. Finally, looking through as an amateur poet, I practice poetry “as a method of inquiry to move into [my] own impossibility, where anything might happen—and will” (St. Pierre, 2005, p. 973). I create opportunities for meaning making and insights as my stories and poems resonate for others, and in how my stories inform, enhance, and deepen parents’ and educators’ knowledge and conceptualizations of an inclusive school community.